Filipino Meningo alert: Boy dies, another in hospital for contagious disease

Published Sunday, February 03, 2013

By Correspondent

MANILA: Government and private health workers are now on alert after the discovery of another case of meningococcemia that shortly followed the death of a child from the same contagious disease.

A two-year old boy is now being treated at the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center, in Tondo, Manila, where he was diagnosed of suffering from meningococcemia, an acute infection of the bloodstream.

This has prompted the Department of Health to issue an order telling health workers to monitor any cases of the meningococcemia and treat these as emergency.

Last Tuesday, a four-year old boy died of the disease at the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center, in a Metro Manila suburb of Marikina.

The hospital’s emergency room had been shut for quarantine and its staff, who were on duty when the boy was brought there, given antibiotics to ward off chances of contracting the disease.

Radio reports said that doctors at Gat Andres confirmed on Thursday that the two-year-old boy was suffering from meningococcemia, which is potentially life threatening and whose initial symptoms are similar to those of influenza—fever, nausea, and headache.

While doctors have now pronounced as stable the boy’s vital signs, he is still under strict observation at the hospital.

ALSO READ:

Yoko Ono shells out $10,000 for ‘Pablo’ victims